The application generally relates to winch operation and control. The application relates more specifically to a system for controlling a plurality of motorized winches using a distributed control model wherein each winch can process and generate its own control instructions or motion profiles and can provide safety and system monitoring.
One use of motorized winches is to suspend and move objects, equipment and/or persons above the ground to enhance live performances, such as sporting events or theatrical/religious performances, or to increase the realism of movie or television productions. For example, several motorized winches could be used to suspend and move a person or object in the air during a theatrical performance to give the appearance that the person or object is “flying” through the air. In another example, a camera could be suspended over the playing surface of a sporting event to capture a different aspect of the action occurring on the playing surface.
In both of the previous examples, all of the motorized winches in the system have to work in a coordinated manner to avoid injury to the person or damage to the object or equipment being suspended. A mistimed or improper action by one of the winches could result in the person, object or equipment crashing into the ground or colliding with another object or structure. Currently, the coordinated control of motorized winches is accomplished with control instructions to the motorized winches from a remotely located controller. The remotely located controller can be incorporated with a user interface for the system or can be an intermediate controller, sometimes referred to as a drive rack, a motion controller or a stack, located between the user interface and the motorized winches. The controller generates and provides the individual instructions to the motorized winch, e.g., extend or retract cable commands, cable speed commands or cable distance commands. In addition, the controller can receive feedback information from each motorized winch relating to the operational status of the motorized winches. The controller can provide control instructions to the motorized winches in order to sequence or coordinate the operation of the motorized winches.
One drawback to the centralized control of the motorized winches with the controller is that as the number of winches in a particular flying system increases, the processing power or capability of the controller and the controller's corresponding communication bandwidth has to likewise increase in order to be able to provide the appropriate control instructions to the motorized winches and receive the corresponding feedback from the motorized winches. If the controller cannot process the information and instructions fast enough, the winch system may not perform as expected and/or safety risks could be introduced that could cause damage or injury to both people and property. In addition, all cables, wires and corresponding connection points used in the system have to be connected to the central location.
Therefore, what is needed is a control system for motorized winches that enables the control instructions for each motorized winch to be generated at the winch using a controller incorporated into the winch.